Towards a systematic threat modeling approach for cyber-physical systems

Abstract

Abstract-Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are systems with seamless integration of physical, computational and networking components. These systems can potentially have an impact on the physical components, hence it is critical to safeguard them against a wide range of attacks. In this paper, it is argued that an effective approach to achieve this goal is to systematically identify the potential threats at the design phase of building such systems, commonly achieved via threat modeling. In this context, a tool to perform systematic analysis of threat modeling for CPS is proposed. A real-world wireless railway temperature monitoring system is used as a case study to validate the proposed approach. The threats identified in the system are subsequently mitigated using National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards.

A review of threat modelling approaches for APT-style attacks

“…These vulnerability metrics or scores combined with a process to identify relevant threats can guide defenders in targeting and prioritising solutions. A number of studies has identified that the analysis of vulnerability/threat combination remains a manual process [ 16 , 26 , 27 , 28 ].…”

“…In a study by Martins, et al. [ 16 ], it was identified that there is limited tools available assist with methodically analysing CPS threats. The scarcity of these tools is due to the diverse features of a CPS.…”

“…A common theme in the reviewed papers were the 4 aspects to Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) ( Figure 3 ) [ 15 ], Centric based TM (Figures 2 , 4 , and 5 ) [ 16 , 17 ], and types of TM (Figures 6 , 7 , and 8 ) [ 16 , 18 , 19 ]. An axis and quadrant style representation encouraged by ENISA [ 15 ] was used for our study's original figures, including a the recreation of their representation of the CTI program ( Figure 3 ).…”

A novel SMP-based survivability evaluation metric and approach in wireless sensor network

“…Attack tree based approach and stochastic model based approach are two main threat modeling method [10]. In tree modeling approach, the root node representing the attack goal and leaf nodes representing the ways of achieving the attack goal.…”

Smart connected homes : concepts, risks, and challenges

“…To identify threats and threat scenarios for a system different models can be used. A threat model is a structured approach that allows a systematic identification and rating of security related threats that are likely to affect the system under consideration [57]. In general, threat modeling approaches can be categorized into three different groups: systemcentric, asset-centric, and attacker-centric approaches [56] with main emphasis being on the system architecture, assets, and threat agents, respectively.…”